It wouldn’t be summer without blockbuster movies, and it wouldn’t
be a blockbuster movie without a featured car or truck. Already well
into this summer’s movie season, here’s our list of the Top
10 Movie Pickup Trucks.

This
three-quarter-ton, heavy-duty rig (a new model year in each movie)
is driven by detective Martin Riggs, a comically reckless homicide
cop played by Mel Gibson. With its giant profile and dual rear
wheels, the truck didn’t
have any special powers or neat tricks, except that it helped boost
sales of big trucks to guys who wanted to pretend they were comically
reckless homicide cops like Mel Gibson.

9

1995
Dodge Ram 2500, "Twister"

Notable
features: Self-healing, evades flying cows, V-10 power

True
story -- Ford and Chrysler vied for the opportunity to show off
their latest pickup trucks in “Twister,” but Chrysler
won after its PR firm leveraged a personal relationship with the
movie’s producers.

The Dodge Ram in the film is known for its uncanny ability to
suffer fatal damage in one scene but continue to haul its tornado
chasers and their gear in the next. Who needs an unlimited powertrain
warranty if your truck can do that?

8

1978
Chevrolet K10 Cheyenne, "Red Dawn"

Notable
features: Runs on urea, kind of

When the Soviets, Cubans and Nicaraguans invade the United States
in passenger jets, which vehicle is going to save you and your
friends? A red-blooded Chevy pickup truck, of course. Patrick Swayze
pilots this short-wheelbase K10 through the backroads of Colorado
as he and his high-school buddies take on the entire Red Army. Wolverines!

7

2003
Toyota Tundra, "Terminator
3"

Notable
features: Built as tough as the legendary Top
Gear Toyota HiLux,
turns into a convertible – the hard way

The
way this pickup was driven around the streets of Los Angeles,
you’d think Shia
LaBeouf was behind the wheel (what, too
soon?). The SR5 Tundra in "T3" proves nearly as indestructible
as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character. Toyota even sold special
edition "Terminator 3" Tundras for people who couldn’t
get enough of the truck on screen. It was perhaps the best product
placement of all time: If Toyota doesn’t get a truck right
the first time (or second or third), like a cybernetic organism,
they’ll be back.

Once
upon a time, mighty, full-size Jeep pickups called Gladiators roamed
the earth. They could drive almost anywhere and carry almost any
load. If giant, intelligent worms with a fondness for human flesh
got in the way, they helped crush the subterranean monsters before
they could touch your sweetheart. Compared to modern Jeeps, like
the Compass and Patriot, what hero wouldn’t want a Jeep Gladiator?